Google Tests Putting Images in its Search Advertising – is it a One Off or Are we Looking at Something Big
Google it seems is revamping the way its search ads function. The famed PPC text ads which brought text and pay per click advertising back from a near death experience is apparently looking at adding thumbnails to sponsored ads.
Barry Schwartz’s blog post which links to an interesting thread in Webmasterworld forums where this was first reported. The thread creator posted this:
I just did a search and the top three results under sponsored links on the right side appeared to be affiliate ads. But, instead of just the regular text ads they had an 80×80 product image and then the title text for the product.
This is quite similar to the products plus option they had added (in private beta still I guess) February, which showed images under a plus box – a box which opens on clicking a plus sign – along with retail results. Here’s a screenshot that was grabbed about the new set of ads.
PPC Ad Screenshot courtesy Search Engine Land
Google on its part hasn’t denied that they tested such an ad, however suggested that these are routine experiments they try to enhance performance for their clients. According to Barry’s post on Search Engine Land they also said it is currently being tested on a very limited scale within USA. So whatever be the case of these tests or whether they go live anytime soon, it will still take a long time for them move out of USA with this. Hopefully China and India will strengthen their cause stronger by then for Big G to shun its US obsession and start looking at our markets.
This news is big on multiple counts. For one, ads next to images have been documented to have better performance compared to pure text ads, obviously because of the attention an image can grab. On the other hand, this has also been reported as a major reason for click frauds or wrong clicks thus costing the advertisers. It also is a big move on part of the minimal loving Google, who for reasons perhaps like ad fatigue or the recession is now having to have its own variant of the traditional banner to push results and ad performance.
How will the users take this move if it ever sees the light of the day? Will it change search marketing fundamentally? Will it have any bearing on the recent real time duel that’s begun? One small move and so many questions already.
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Hi
Even my experience with my venture says that users click more Images links rather than text links.